


Domestic

by servantofclio



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 12:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8328550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/servantofclio/pseuds/servantofclio
Summary: The house on the mesa still isn’t finished, but these days it has a level foundation and four walls and a roof.





	

The house on the mesa still isn’t finished, but these days it has a level foundation and four walls and a roof. And windows, lots of them: wide and tall, triple-reinforced but perfectly clear, because if Tali is going to have a house on the homeworld, she is damned well going to see the homeworld around her.

The sun is setting as she sets the flyer down on the landing pad outside the house. Tali had seen sunsets on other worlds, but she will swear with every breath in her that there is something special about a sunset on Rannoch: the sky turns a particular, deep, saturated shade of purple that she’s never seen anywhere else, the stars coming out in pinpoints, while the sun hanging on the horizon is still a bright gold, ringed in orange and crimson and rose. Tali gets out of the flyer and pauses to watch it dip down past the edge of the mesa. A dark, winged shape soars across the sky – a raalex – and she snaps a picture on her headset. She’s taken one of almost every sunset, over a thousand of them by now.

As the sun disappears and darkness creeps over the mesa, Tali turns and goes in – through a door, just an ordinary door, not an airlock – the house is more sealed than a human or turian habitation might be, but it’s not a bubble, not like the ships used to be. And inside the house she unclasps the mask that protects her face from dust and takes in a breath of real, non-recirculated air, and smells – something. Something good, the air rich and spicy and unfamiliar. The geth that lives in what’s left of her exosuit starts softly listing off the spices being used, a quiet litany in Tali’s ear. “Smells good,” she calls out, pulling off her hood and shaking out the feathery tendrils that fall from her scalp.

“There you are.” Kal comes out of the kitchen, limping a little. “Tried a new recipe tonight. Should be ready soon.”

“Good, I’m hungry already. How were your projects?”

“Not bad. Set up the new lighting. Tweaked the temperature controls on the hydroponics tank.” Kal reaches out to her, and Tali leans into the embrace, savoring the warm solid feel of him and smiling to herself. Kal might have been a Migrant Fleet marine, but every quarian worth their food ration can tinker a bit. They build the foundation of the house together, with a few geth for good measure, but he’s done most of the rest of it, day after day, making everything just right.

“How’s the Admiralty Board?” Kal adds.

Tali grimaces. “Same as always. Picking fights with each other. I still say we should dissolve ourselves. We don’t even have anything to be admirals of any more.” It’s not the first time she’s said it. It’s not quite true – there’s still a defense fleet in orbit – but the other admirals have been slow to yield command to the new colony captains.

“Need any backup, ma’am?”

Tali shakes her head. “I don’t even want to think about Xen tonight.”

“Well,” Kal says, “I’ve always been a fair hand at providing distraction.”

Tali thinks, as she kisses him, that that sounds about perfect – dinner, and a quiet night with her husband, with the lights turned down, and the stars blazing in the sky beyond the window.


End file.
